4 states begin testing their vaccine readiness
Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat start trial run of Covid-19 vaccine delivery systems
AHMEDABAD/LUDHIANA/VIJAYAWADA/GUWAHATI: Four states — Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat — on Monday began a trial run of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine delivery systems, with health authorities checking everything from their technology platforms to the storage infrastructure that will be required to inoculate millions.
India wants to deliver 600 million coronavirus shots in the next six to eight months starting in January, with emergency use approval for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected within days.
The country’s drug regulator is also considering similar approvals for the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine and another developed by India’s Bharat Biotech.
“The exercise is basically a mock drill for our healthcare workers on how to run the whole vaccination process and system,” Jaiprakash Shivahare, the commissioner for health in the western state of Gujarat, told Reuters.
State health officials had set up 19 vaccination centres, each with 25 dummy beneficiaries played by health workers, who would help test out the entire inoculation sequence, including online monitoring systems, Shivahare said.
“The cold chain infrastructure for distribution of the vaccine is also being tested as a part of the dry run,” he said.
In the eastern state of Assam, mock drills and training were carried out in two districts — Nalbari and Sonitpur — where
vaccinators were given instructions on storing and administering the shots.
Nalbari’s district immunisation officer Dr Hemanta Kumar Das said that the dry run programme will provide insights into gaps or bottlenecks which could be checked out before the commencement of the actual vaccination drive.
“In the first phase, we shall be
administering the vaccine only to healthcare workers,” Assam’s junior health minister Pijush Hazarika said.
In Punjab, Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) have been selected for the dry run, health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said.
District immunisation officer, Nawanshahr, Dr Davinder Dhanda said the necessary infrastructure at each centre includes a waiting area, an injection room, and an observation room where the person undergoing ‘dummy vaccination’ on Tuesday during the dry run would be kept for half an hour.
In Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district was picked for the dry run, where it was carried out in five locations.